


Pre Wedding Bliss?

by PrincessSelene04



Series: Wedding of the Era [1]
Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: "what happened in budapest" reference, Best Friends, Brotp, Fight me on that, Friendship, Gen, Kai is the best fiance ever, because i couldnt help myself, for crying out loud cinder he's a captain, he just loves cinder with all his heart ok?, shitty people piss kai off so he goes off, thorne and cinder are bffs just like clint and natasha are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21707653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessSelene04/pseuds/PrincessSelene04
Summary: In which Cinder is constantly bombarded by self doubt, Thorne is a good friend, and Kai is a defensive fiance.
Relationships: Kai/Linh Cinder, Linh Cinder & Carswell Thorne
Series: Wedding of the Era [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602997
Comments: 6
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thorne finally gets to help Cinder pick out that tiara.

Cinder was going to regret this. She knew she was, but a promise made in the midst of a revolution was still a promise. At least that’s what Thorne said. She was more… uncertain on the subject.

When she told him, “you can help me pick out a tiara when we’re done saving the world” it was meant as a sarcastic remark. A way to brush off whatever ludicrous thing he’d said at the time. She couldn’t remember exactly what he said to make her reply with that--it was impossible for even Iko to remember every strange sentence that came out of that man’s mouth--but somehow he remembered her saying it three years after the fact.

So here they were, walking arm-in-arm through the halls of New Beijing palace to the vault the crown jewels were stored in. It was honestly a miracle that they would even let Thorne onto this floor given his criminal past.

“You really didn’t have to fly here all the way from--wait where were you again?” Cinder asked.

Thorne grinned, “Budapest.”

“Right,” she said as they turned a corner. There’d been a few minor outbreaks of letumosis lately. Thankfully they were acting fast enough that no one died. “You didn’t have to come all the way from Budapest. We could have just done this next month before the wedding. I’m sure you and Cress were plenty busy distributing antidotes and sightseeing.”

“Cress wasn’t with me. And we can’t pick out a tiara last minute, Your Majesty! Picking the wrong one could send the wrong message to the nation.”

“I’m not a queen anymore, don’t call me Your Majesty.” Cinder rolled her eyes at the mischievous glint in his baby blues, but something he said made her pause, face contorting in confusion. “Wait, where’s Cress?”

“When we visited Red and Wolfie a few months ago she decided to stay and have some… alone time. Figure things out.”

That confused her even more. They’d been glued at the hip since the revolution.

Stars, she wished Iko was here to ask Thorne all the right questions, but she was with the tailor working on Cinder’s dress. Iko would merely ask what was on her mind instead of worrying about it like Cinder was then. 

Taking a breath, she gently prodded, “figure things out?”

“Yeah. I don’t think we’re,” he paused, looking for the right word, “clicking anymore.”

“Oh.”

“I mean, I love her, and she loves me, but something feels different. Off. We both want to travel the world have adventures, but I think she’s starting to feel like she has to settle with me. Which she doesn’t. She should see what’s out there, do things without me constantly at her side. So she is. I think she’s really enjoying herself.” 

Thorne looked genuinely happy for Cress.

“That’s good then,” Cinder said. “Do you think you’ll…”

She wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence. Stay together? Go separate ways? It was impossible to know what would happen, and Cinder had never been good at judging those types of things.

They walked down another corridor, getting closer to the vault.

He smiled fondly, like he was remembering something. “I don't know. I’ve changed a lot, and definitely for the better, but I still don’t think I can give her what she truly wants. When it comes down to it, I think she’ll want a nice house in the suburbs or country where she can raise a few kids with someone who’s home more often than they’re away.”

“And you’d rather be away, always on the move,” Cinder said, now understanding.

“Exactly. I love going from place to place, not knowing where I’ll be one, two, three months from now. I always know I can stop by here, the farm, or wherever Winter and Jacin are when I feel like I need some friendly faces. Otherwise, I like the nomadic life.”

“We know, Thorne. We _all_ know.”

He smiled so bright it would put the sun to shame. Removing his arm from hers, Thorne put it over her shoulders instead. “Oh how I’ve missed you, my mechanical majesty.”

She huffed a laugh, wrapping her own arm around his waist so they could walk better. “You comm me almost every day, but I’ve missed you too, cadet crazy.” 

And she really did. She missed his smiles and his witty remarks. Don’t get her wrong, Kai was still the sassiest in all the galaxy, but there was something about Thorne’s goofy humor that made her nostalgic.

“How many times do I have to remind you I’m a _captain_?”

“According to your military record, you’re still a cadet.”

He gasped. “I can’t believe you brought that up!”

They finally made it to the guarded door of the vault so Cinder let go of him. She greeted the guards by name--something she’d made a point to do here just like she did on Luna--then asked for them to open it up. Both scanned their left eye then stepped back so Cinder could do the same.

The metal door hissed and clanked as the gears turned took a few seconds to open it. One of the guards handed Cinder a plastic card that contained the ID chip required for accessing the jewels.

Thanking Yao and Sakata, Cinder grabbed an awestruck Thorne’s wrist and pulled him into the room.

The decently sized room had a dozen or so glass cases each containing several pieces of jewelry. There were emeralds and diamonds, rubies and pearls embedded into gold or silver. There were necklaces and earrings paired together. Crowns and tiaras sat on red velvet cushions. Rings were displayed on angled cylinders that looked like fingers which were lined with even more velvet. Brooches and hair combs were laid out neatly.

Cinder had only been inside this room one other time--when Kai was giving her the official tour once she moved in--and it was quite a sight to behold again. 

Although they were all beautiful pieces… she’d never been a fan of jewelry. Maybe it was because Adri never let her have any, maybe it was because she felt like it didn’t fit with her metal extremities, or maybe it was because it felt restrictive because she was a mechanic. The idea of wearing things from this room made her feel uneasy, like she was going to break some priceless artifact and be shipped back to Luna in shame.

Kai wouldn’t do that of course, but Torin might.

Thorne whistled. “Damn, in another life I would’ve _loved_ to rob this place.”

“Thorne,” Cinder scolded with absolutely no malice.

He walked over to the first case and peered inside. “Oh, you have got to try this one on.” He reached out to touch the glass, but Cinder swatted his hand away. “What was that for?” he whined.

“They’re temperature controlled. If you touch them before unlocking them, the room locks down.”

“Gotcha. No touching the cases.”

Cinder bent down and tapped the card to the red light on the side of the case and waited for it to turn green. Once it did, she looked up at Thorne. “Alright, go ahead. But for the love of the stars please don’t break anything. Future empress or not, Torin will have my head.”

“ _Puh-lease_ , you’re speaking to a criminal mastermind, remember? Well, ex criminal mastermind, but you get the point.” He tentatively reached inside the case and pulled out the tiara he saw. He inspected it. “And you’re being dramatic, Cinder. Stop trying to steal my thing.” 

“Trust me Thorne, wouldn’t dream of it.” 

“Oh speaking of dreams.” He motioned her forward so he could place the crown on her head. “How’s your casanova, your emperor charming, your dear husband-to-be?”

She shifted under the weight of the crown. The thing was too damn heavy. If she had to wear it though an hour long traditional ceremony, surely she’d have a headache by the end of it. “He’s been busy, but so have I,” Cinder admitted.

He wiggled his eyebrows. “ _Gettin’_ busy, or--fuck!” Doubling over, Thorne grunted.

Cinder elbowed him in the ribs. The golden crown wobbled on top of her head and she quickly brought her flesh hand up to steady it. 

“Can’t you keep your mind out of the gutter for one day? Or better yet, an hour?”

“I was only joking.”

She sighed, taking the crown off her head and setting it back in the case. “I know, Thorne.” Her fingers twitched. Cinder stared blankly down at the crown for before shutting the case. She didn’t turn around to face him.

He always made jokes about it, and they never actually hurt her, never made her feel bad about herself, but they always managed to accidentally strike a chord. She’d always felt so… unloveable.

Intimacy of any kind was still difficult for her despite the last three years of attention Kai had given her. And he wasn’t the only one either. Iko, Thorne, Cress, Scarlet, Winter, and aces, even Wolf were so physically affectionate that sometimes it overwhelmed her.

And that’s what she worried about.

Even though they slept in the same bed every night, Cinder and Kai had yet to take that step in their relationship. She worried that she would tense up just like she did when anyone so much as hugged her for too long.

It’d gotten easier. Of course it had. Kai hugged her every day, kissed her every day. And Iko sometimes held Cinder so tight she thought her metal ribs might break off. There was still a piece of her that still felt--

“Cinder?” Thorne asked. “You’ve been staring at that case for two full minutes.”

She blinked a few times and checked the clock in her retina display. He was right. She’d been standing there doing nothing for the last two minutes. Cinder cleared her throat and turned to face him. “Right, sorry. Just… lost in my thoughts.”

He took a step closer and gently rapped his knuckles against her skull. “You need a new memory chip or something in there?”

Cinder scowled at him and pushed his hand away. “My memory is just fine, thank you.” She glanced around the room at more jewelry. “I think that crown was too much. Too big. Maybe try to find something more subtle.”

“In this room? Not likely.”

He walked around the room, examining more pieces as he went. He pointed to a different one. It was the opposite of subtle. Rubies and yellow sapphires covered the delicately woven gold.

Cinder shook her head. “No that’s the empress’s coronation crown. I can’t wear it before then.”

“Damn. I liked that one.”

Of course he did.

They continued to wander. Every once in a while he would point to a tiara and she would try it on. None of them really seemed to fit her though. They were either too big and ostentatious or too small and modest.

She would have been more than fine with a modest tiara, but every time she brought that up to Thorne he would shake his head and say “You’re going to be an empress, Cinder. You can do better than that.”

Finally their eyes both landed on the same case and they knew it was perfect. Cinder tapped the card to the red light. Thorne pulled the golden crown out and carefully placed it on top of her head with a smile. He took a few steps back admiring how beautiful his best friend looked.

“Well?” Cinder asked. “What do you think?”

Thorne smiled, brushing her bangs out of her face. “I think it suits you. But you should try it on with the dress to make sure it doesn’t clash.”

“Iko won’t let me look at the dress until the day of. She said there was this old western tradition where the groom wasn’t allowed to see the dress until the wedding day and decided that instead _I_ wouldn’t be able to see it until the wedding day.”

His smile widened, eyes sparkling once again. “Then you won’t see it.”

“What?”

Before she could ask anything else, Thorne was leading her out of the vault, promising Yao and Sakata that they’d be back in less than an hour with the tiara, then taking her to Iko’s room.

Iko was pleased to see them. She crushed Thorne in a hug then yanked them both inside. She agreed to let Cinder try on the dress with the crown so they could make sure they looked good together as long as she didn’t open her eyes.

Cinder rolled her eyes. What would it matter if she saw her own wedding dress? She didn’t believe in superstitious mumbo jumbo like bad luck. Besides, it didn’t even apply to her. It was supposed to be about Kai seeing the dress.

Iko persisted though, so Cinder agreed. 

She kept her eyes shut as Iko helped her put the dress on in her large closet. She almost fell over a few times, but Iko steadied her. The silk was soft on her skin.

“Alright. We’re walking now.” Iko opened the closet door her hands over Cinder’s eyes to keep her from peaking. She stopped and Thorne once again put the tiara on her head. The weight of this one was much easier to bear than the others she tried on. 

“Now keep your eyes closed.”

“I am, I am!” Cinder sighed. She wanted to see for herself what she looked like, but she knew Thorne and Iko were better at style and matching and anything else beauty related than her.

They stood in front of her, smiling wide. 

Cinder kept her eyes closed, anxiously waiting for them to say something. “Well?”

“You look gorgeous.”

**(This is what I imagine Cinder's wedding outfit looking like.)**


	2. If Looks Could Kill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignorant reporters are the bane of Cinder and Kai's existence.

Cinder watched the replay of last night’s press conference on the screen in Kai’s suite. Holding her breath, she waited for the exact moment she knew was coming. It didn’t take long, it was one of the first questions a reporter asked yesterday.

“Will the former Queen Selene be getting a bioelectricity security block implanted before her coronation as empress?”

Now normally, that would be a valid question, even Cinder had to admit that. She wouldn’t want someone like Levana coming into power again. She wouldn’t want someone to use their glamour to manipulate foreign dignitaries or parliament or citizens. What irked her--and what irked Kai--about it was how the reporter asked the question. 

The man didn’t say it kindly. Instead he spoke with an air of ignorance, purposely trying to twist a knife into her gut.

On the screen, Kai’s face immediately turned dark. 

Aces, that reporter was in for it. 

Kai maintained a diplomatic tone, but even people who didn’t know him personally would have been able to tell that he was fighting everything inside himself to keep his cool. 

“Her Majesty already had a BSB implanted when she was undergoing her cybernetic surgeries. The device was deactivated three years ago by a doctor here at the palace. Though getting the implant is a simple procedure, reactivating or replacing them is more difficult and would put Her Majesty at risk. She, myself, and several doctors have agreed that the costs of doing so would not be worth the risk, and therefore we have all decided  _ not _ to reactivate or install a new BSB.”

“Aren’t you concerned about her glamouring you?” The reporter pressed.

And Cinder watched as those few words pushed her fiance over the edge of politeness. His eyes narrowed in anger and his voice grew deeper than she’d ever heard it before. If looks could kill that reporter would have exploded.

“Linh Cinder, Queen Selene, whatever title you want to use for  _ my fiancee _ , has done  _ nothing  _ but help this nation, this planet, and this solar system. She never wanted to be Queen of Luna but she did it anyway. And instead of appointing a new monarch, or ruling Luna until her death, she turned it into a republic, allowing the people to decide who they wanted as a leader the same way Earthen nations do through our presidents, prime ministers, or parliaments.

“During the revolution, she only ever used her glamour for the greater good. These days she only uses it with the consent of others to prevent herself from getting lunar sickness. If I had  _ any  _ concerns about her intentions or motivations in our marriage, I would not have asked her to marry me. She is not Queen Levana. She is not a tyrant holding an alliance over our heads in exchange for necessary resources to save lives.

“All this information has been available for the last six months. So next time you attend a press conference, Mr. Yu, I suggest you do some research beforehand, so you don’t ask questions that have already been answered.”

The sea of journalists waved their hands and shouted out more questions, but Cinder didn’t pay attention to much else after that point. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the couch.

A different sigh came from behind her, “Why are you watching this, Cinder?”

She kept her eyes closed even as the netscreen went mute and the couch dipped under the weight of Kai taking a seat beside her.

“Wanted to watch you tear Yu a new one again.”

“We both know that’s not true,” he said softly. “I mean, it  _ is  _ pretty entertaining to watch, but we both know that’s not why you’re watching it.”

Her eyes cracked open to peek at him to her right. “Then why am I watching it, oh wise one?” Was she getting sarcastic as a defense mechanism? Of course she was, she didn’t want to talk about this right now.

“You’re watching it because you think he’s right.”

She scoffed, trying to pretend it wasn’t true. Opening her eyes all the way, she sat up, tucked her knees beneath her, and faced him. “I don’t think he’s right. I think he’s arrogant and ignorant.”

“Cinder,” he said again. It was that voice she hated and loved at the same time. Hated because it meant he knew exactly what she was thinking, loved because it meant he was going to do something about what she was thinking.

“It’s fine, Kai. I really am used to this type of thing.” She held up her left hand and wiggled her metal fingers as if to prove her point.

“I see your face whenever someone says something like that whether it be about you being a cyborg or a lunar. You’re not fine.”

“No,” Cinder agreed. It hurt every time someone stared for too long, or asked questions like that reporter, or implied that she didn’t have feelings. “But I have to be.”

Kai frowned. Reaching out, he took both of her hands and rubbed soothing circles over her knuckles. “You don’t have to pretend like everything is okay when it’s not, Cinder. No one expects you to constantly be a pillar of strength, least of all me. You’re human. We get overwhelmed, we have breakdowns, and other people tear us apart. I know you can’t cry, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get upset with the injustices of the world.”

She felt a headache coming on and carefully shook her head. Nope, wasn’t going away. Cinder took a deep breath, looking down at their hands to avoid his eyes.

“You’re not a monster, Cinder,” he whispered. “I know the world makes you feel like it because some people are terrible and try to blame easy targets for their problems. But you’re not a bad person. You’re the best person I know and I love you so, so much.”

She met his eyes again and gave him a brief smile. “I love you too.”

“I’m trying everything I can, but… legislation isn’t going to be enough to overcome centuries of prejudice, is it?”

“I wish it was.”

“I’m sorry.”

That made her laugh.

Kai looked at her, confused. “What?”

“Apologizing for other people’s shitty prejudices is ridiculous, Kai.”

“ _ That’s _ why you laughed?”

Her lips pulled into a genuine smile. “Yes. I swear sometimes your heart is too big for your chest, Kai.”

Kai stared at her for a few seconds. “Okay I know what you mean, but at the same time…  _ what the fuck does that mean _ , Cinder?”

Cinder laughed again, but this time she found herself unable to stop. Her ribs ached yet the headache started to disappear as she leaned forward to rest her head on his shoulder. As she shook with laughter, Kai’s wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her temple.

People were mean and cruel and ignorant sometimes, but so long as Kai and their friends were by her side, she could get through anything. 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Pre-Wedding Bliss? (Ch.1 of Wedding of the Era by PrincessSelene04)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24939091) by [Sunsetovergatlon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunsetovergatlon/pseuds/Sunsetovergatlon)




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